Castle Combe Autumn Classic 3 October (FISCAR)

[LouK]

Last race of the season for the Aurelia (not us as we plan to race the Beta in a 2 hour race at the Nordschleife in late Oct) will be Castle Combe on 3 October. This is always a great event with a vintage feel and enthusiastic spectators.  Not the razzmatazz of the Revival but the racing will no doubt be every bit as good and we love raving with the 50s guys.

[DavidLaver]

http://www.castlecombeautumnclassic.co.uk/

[sparehead3]

Well, as we're represented there I'll put in on the calendar on the website I'll also ask at the Bristol meeting next week whether anyone is going to spectate ? ( don't think I'd be able to )

[ben]

I hope to be there---and be pleased to talk about Aprilias.

                           Ben

[sparehead3]

Well, with reasonable weather I went along and had a spectator day ! What a great day ! Lots going on and lots of this to see and tucked away in the car parks Easy access round the whole circuit and all sorts of different things going round.

I believe Louise was lucky not to have been involved in the accident at Quarry ( but pretty close to it as the Aurelia came through just after it happened ). I was just further down that track so could see a cluster of stationary cars but not exactly what happened ...

Nice to see Roland's Theta and meeting up with Ben - although we didn't talk Aprillias ... it's one for the diary next year though.

[DavidLaver]

Its a long time since I've been to Castle Coombe.  I used to think "what a shame they put the chicanes in" while now I'm thinking "not a lot of runoff here..".  What that means as a spectator is you get close to the action and lots of Goodwood-esq high speed corners.

The car park was stunning and the marque displays likewise.  What a collection of Bristols (oooeer missus) and a great line up of Lotus 6s.  As for the Kennedy's grid - 39 fifties sports cars on a high speed track?   The Healey race was more like rally cross the way they drift them round.  Historic touring cars.  Vintage.  Formula juniors and some cars there I'd never seen.  500s.  BRM demo - I'd forgotten what a great noise a 70s F1 car makes, "great" in quality and quantity. 

Chilly but bright.  One to remember for another year and I'm all the keener to finally get to a Rally Day.  M4 blocked which was a blessing as we dropped down to Malborough to pick up the 303 then cut the top off the M3 (when will they finish those road works...) to the A3.  Much nicer than just a motorway slog.

David

[LouK]

An excellent day all round.  I can't add to David's great summary - this really is a fabulous day of racing every year with the only issue that it clashes with the Italian vintage cycle race I like to do hence we didn't make Combe last year.  It was lovely to meet up with everyone including David, Ian, Ben and others.  Loved seeing the club stands.

As for the racing well a 39 car grid was always going to be busy and practice proved exactly that. Jason got the quieter of our stints and set a time that got us to 31st on the grid.  Definitely not one of our better practices as we were outpaced by cars we've beaten before, but the Aurelia went well and Combe is always fun.

The race was only 30 mins so short and sharp and my plan was to keep Jason out as long as possible as I'd had a great time at Goodwood. He got a steady start and within a lap was reeling in cars, a car overtaken on this lap, two more on the next. 

He didn't wait for the nod to come in and he arrived in the pit lane earlier than I'd planned but luckily I was ready.  He was concerned with a weird prop noise (odd sound on the video) but it cleared on his in-lap.

Off I went and within a few meters I got overtaken by 3 cars.  But what's that up ahead, one has had a tank slapper and the other two are struggling to avoid it.  Small bang then a much larger bang, metal on metal and it was clear a pretty big accident was happening just in front and to the side of me.  There's a gap in the left side (not far from an abandoned car on the grass) so I head for that, tentatively and safely but now I'm worried the cars could be pushed into my direction so with a clear track ahead i put the gas down, leaving the carnage behind. 

I continue to accelerate but am aware that there's no way the race can go on and sure enough, a couple of corners later the red flags are waving and I come to a stop on the grid.  After a few minutes we are told the race is finished and off we go back to the Paddock.

Thankfully it appears the drivers of the accident would okay but there's at least one badly damaged Aston and I'm not sure about the other two.

At the prize giving we were delighted to part of the Italian Team that won the Team Challange!  This is calculated using a handicap and ourselves and our team mates (Alfa Zagato and Alfa Disco Volonte) had exceeded our seeding so won on points.  We also got a second in class with our team mate winning.

So a good result albeit not the way we like to end races.  Thankfully the Aurelia has survived another great season - what will next year bring?  Like David, we completely avoided the M4 and had a delightful trip to Devizes, Andover and then the M3.

[DavidLaver]

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[the.cern]

That really does look like a brilliant day out!! Thank you for the photographs David, I can just see your Gussie Special there one day!!!!

                         Andy

[Parisien]

Another visual feast, thank you again David. As for the B20s, utterly fabulous.......


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